


there is a roadway (muddy and foxgloved)

by ephemeralite



Series: all the things to come (are the things that have passed) [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves Deserves Better, Ben Hargreeves is Alive, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, No beta we die like mne, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sir Reginald Is A Rat Bastard, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, also the luther/allison is a thing BUT in the littlest way i could do it, but im not gonna lie i don't really like luther, but! i'm gonna do my best to be fair to him and his trauma, cos thats not really healthy and this series Will be about becoming a better healthier person, if i can keep writing for it lmao, ramble time ramble time, the hargreeves all deserved better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 00:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17991221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephemeralite/pseuds/ephemeralite
Summary: Travelling back in time was part of the plan, as hasty as the plan may have been.Killing Reginald Hargreeves, however, is not (even if it really, really should be).ORThe Hargreeves make a plan to deal with their shit, save themselves from their horrible father, and maybe prevent the apocalypse, too.





	1. there's no plan (no hand on the rein)

**Author's Note:**

> hello! welcome to the fic where i contemplated killing mr Hargreeves, decided maybe I could do something better, then made the kids do the same. 
> 
> note: i wrote this from luthers pov. i don't really like luther. nonetheless, i tried to do my best to give him proper motivations and reasoning. who knows how i did
> 
> overall title from As It Was and chapter title from No Plan, both from hozier's new album, Wasteland, Baby!

When Luther lands, it's to the feeling of his very soul trying to escape his chest. His fingers feel soft and small and _fragile_ where they grip into the soil, and he doesn't know if he could find his toes if he was pressed to.

There is a moment of absolute confusion. He has no clue where he is or what he was doing. Then, his hearing fades back in and he catches the sound of Five groaning up a storm somewhere to his left. He remembers. Vanya. Allison.

_Allison!_

Luther manages to drag his aching head up off the ground to search frantically across the mansion's courtyard for her. He feels his breath catch in his throat when he doesn't see her right away.

Finally, he gets sight of her from across the field, fifteen years old, hunched over with Vanya craddled in her arms.

Oh, _hell no_. That bitch can't be allowed anywhere near Allison again.

Diego has an arm around his waist and a snarl on his face before Luther can stagger farther than a few feet towards the girls, but it's his other siblings' reactions that make him to stop in his rampage for revenge.

They don't look at him with anger or protectiveness; they look at Luther like how they used to gaze at Dad as children. His family looks _fearful_.

Of him.

"No fighting now, asshole," Five grinds out from his sprawl in the grass. His voice is scratchy and fades in and out like a broken record. Despite his experience with time-travelling, he definitely seems the worst for wear. "We already agreed that we were walking back into this as a family."

"Family doesn't almost kill their sister!" Luther barks, half an inch away from shouting. Even if Luther _did_ want to be happy and together, _did_ want a family whose trauma didn't cause the apocalypse, Vanya couldn't just be forgiven for what she'd done.

"She didn't do anything, Luther. I'm perfectly fine." Allison snaps back, her face melting into a glare.

Allison's prepubescent voice makes him both want to cry and to scream in joy towards the heavens, but her tone freezes him in place. Allison is angry and hard, from her eyes, to shoulders, to her hands gripping tight to Vanya's arms. _Family doesn't lock their hurting sister into a cage_ , she doesn't say, but her silence is statement enough.

Even breathing feels like too much under this sudden, crushing shame. He just wants to reach out and hold Allison close to his chest, but her feelings towards him are clear.

"If the sausage-fest is over, could we maybe move this all inside now?" A sarcastic voice requests from across the yard.

Luther feels his neck snap around, but all he can process is that that's _Ben_. His dead brother.

His dead brother who is very much _alive_ , reclining in the grass next to Klaus.

Klaus, for his part, doesn't look remotely surprised to see Ben. Everyone else, on the other hand-

That's a different story.

At once, Luther's family is shouting and crying out, desperate for Ben to be real and not a mass hallucination caused by the time travel and subsequent de-aging. Everyone is one big bundle of shock and awe.

Ben doesn't really manage much of a reaction to his family past the shellshocked look on his face. Hesitantly, he lifts a hand to wave at them.

Not even a moment after his hand returns to the earth, all of Luther's siblings are leaping up and rushing towards him. Klaus, who has deigned not to be a part of the family puppy pile, only sits back and laughs at Ben's muffled pleas for release.

Luther can't make himself join the pile for completely different reasons. Less than a minute ago, his siblings were _condemning_ him for doing what he thought was best. That doesn't really inspire a warm, fuzzy, welcomed feeling in his chest.

Besides, if all of his other siblings hate him for what he did to Vanya, Luther doubts Ben would be willing to forgive him long enough to recieve a hug. Even if he had always been the meekest of the bunch (apart from Vanya, who played at being shy like it was her job), God knows that Ben could hold a grudge from _hell_. Luther doesn't see forgiveness anywhere in his immediate future.

_(Standing on the fringe of his family, he might as well be back on the moon for how isolated he feels. Cold, close enough to see, but never to touch-)_

He's shaken out of his downward spiral by Klaus, who continues to be as loud and abrasive as ever.

"As adorable as this moment totally is, Benny Boy really does have a point. My delicate, fragile bones are starting to _freeze_ out in this terrible cold, and I highly doubt Vanya is doing much better. So, we should really move this whole cuddle-fest into the mansion!" Klaus declares, managing to lift his body up into a standing position with a stretch. Somehow, he makes his gangly, fifteen-year-old body look graceful as he pops every vertebrae in his back - though the bony elbows did subract something from his elegance.

Luther resolutely ignores the awkwardness he feels in his own young, unmarred body and his old, very damaged family.

Whatever.

He gives his family a few more seconds to pull apart and subtly wipe away any tears that might have managed to fall before he speaks again. He can't quite make himself look at them, though, tangled together and high on relief.

"Klaus is right, surprisingly," Luther huffs, speaking over his brother's (unjustified) grumbling. "I know everyone is tired, but we have to get inside and pull together a game plan. We can't wake up tomorrow and not know what we're gonna do. We'll reconvene in my room in ten minutes."

With his jaw clenched and shoulders stiff, Luther spins on the ball of his foot and stalks out of the courtyard. He has a mansion to break into.

(He desperately pretends that he can't hear his siblings voices over the blood rushing in his ears as he walks away. It's easier that way.)


	2. friendly fire (but that was long ago)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben doesn't seem quick to object, either. Luther will be surprised by this total personality change when he's not busy flipping all of his shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> be warned, there's some language in this chapter. this is about twice as long as the last chapter and three times as long as i thought it was gonna be. whoops. also, luther is really going through it. poor kid.
> 
> note: cps stands for child protective services. don't get your hopes up though lmao
> 
> title from Would I Was from hozier's new album Wasteland, Baby! yes, i should be getting a check for how much i'm promoting his new album. no, i am not.

Luther tries not to feel surprised when, even curled up in his childhood bed, he begins to feel out of place amongst his family.

Klaus and Ben are stretched out on the floor, pressed thigh to thigh. Klaus looks miles happier than Luther can ever remember him looking at this age the first time around. Ben looks at peace (Luther has never seen him look like that before).

Allison lays Vanya down onto the bed with all the care of the mother that she is (was. Mother that she was). Vanya looks nothing like the type of person to heartlessly slash open her sister's throat.

Luther clenches his hands into his blanket, then gets up to give Vanya the space to lay properly. He winds up slouching against the foot of his bed, with Allison mirroring him from the wall across his room.

Diego stalks into the room next and prompty jumps up to sit on Luther's desk. He wants to make a comment, just to make Diego as annoyed as Diego annoys Luther, but his brother's silent steps remind Luther that they have to be quiet. No one wants to wake up Dad and invoke his wrath.

Last inside, bordering on late, is Five. Instead of bothering with the door, he pops into existence and claims the last empty corner of the room his to pace in.

There's a brief stretch of silence before anyone speaks. For once, Luther has no desire to lead this discussion.

Or to talk at all.

"Well, I would have figured someone had _something_ to say," Five sighs with his usual condescension - though he can't really hide how dead-tired he sounds. Surprisingly, it only took carrying his six siblings through time and space for him to crack. "We do need to decide on a course of action. The question is: what can we do to make a safe place for our family heal in?"

Allison scoffs. Luther immediately feels dread pool deep in his stomach.

"Do we know that all of our family even wants to make amends?" She bites out. Her arms come up to cross her chest and she looks at the enpty space to her right, but it's obvious who she's talking to.

Luther can physically feel his mouth go dry. After so long alone, he barely knows how to handle himself, let alone an angry sister (and jilted lover, if he could even call her that).

"Listen. I get that we all have our issues. We have way too much history not to. But, as of right now, we are the only ones who've lived through this history. We _have_ to be in this together. It's us or nothing," Diego insists. Luther can't help but be a little shocked, though whether it's about the fact that it was his supposed 'loner' brother saying this or that it almost sounds like he's defending Luther, he can't say.

The enormity of Diego's truth seems to press down onto the room; everything they've lost reflects in the shadows and the distant echoes of the city. For a heartstopping second, it all seems impassable.

"Okay," Ben nods, his tone deceptively light. "We're in this together."

"Together," Klaus confirms, slouching further into Ben before gazing up at his siblings. Luther and Allison both nod back at him, while Five looks smug in the corner.

"Now that we that cleared up: how are we gonna handle this? If we want to prevent the apocalypse, Vanya has to be safe and happy," Diego stresses, eager to stay on track. Luther can see how tired his brothers and sister are, and he supposes Diego can, too. He probably wants to finish this up quickly, so that everyone can finally go to sleep. Number Two was always better than Luther at playing big brother.

There's another moment of silence, this time contemplative instead of tense. Five is, again, the one to break it.

"We could always kill Reginald. God knows that would solve at least eighty three percent of our problems," He offers, a smirk on his mouth but fire burning in his eyes.

If Luther didn't feel so gobsmacked, he's sure his stomach would be roiling with disgust and nausea _(and fear-)_.

To his horror, Klaus absolutely lights up at the idea.

"Oh, that's a wonderful proposal! One shot and he's dead. And he's such a shut in, nobody would even notice! Five, you truly do have the nost brilliant solutions!" He cries, looking more and more excited as he goes on. Luther can see him turn begging eyes onto Ben and Diego.

Any camaraderie Luther might have felt for Diego prompty vanishes when he doesn't shut Klaus down right then and fucking there.

Ben doesn't seem quick to object either. Luther will be surprised by this total personality change when he's not busy flipping all of his shit.

"Are you fucking kidding me? We can't kill him, he's our father! He raised us!" Luther spits, enraged by his family's audacity. He shoves hinself out of his sedated slouch. The only thing stopping him from charging Klaus and Five is Allison. She looks shocked, too.

"No matter what Reginald did to us in the future, he doesn't deserve to die for it, especially _now_." Allison looks at their siblings, obviously searching for the sense they've lost. Ben huffed at her.

"Father has already done terrible things! I mean, look at her," He says, a finger lifted upwards to indicate their sleeping sister. "He kept her drugged and isolated from everything for years! Regardless of anything else, she doesn't deserve to go through that the first time! We can't just let him hurt her all over again!"

"Besides," Five hummed, still pensive, "he practically causes the apocalypse singlehandedly. We kill him, we stop the apocalypse."

The look in Five's eye is too reminiscent of when he was prepared to take his rifle and kill an innocent man to stop the apocalypse the last time. Luther won't allow his brothers to becone cold-blooded killers willing to murder their parent.

"No, okay? _No!_ We are not killing our father, much less for all the shit he hasn't done yet!" He says, attempting to tower over his siblings before he remembers that he's half the size he was a day ago.

His declaration leaves his room still. Stagnant. Everyone is pondering their situation, but no one has anything else to say about it.

Luther allows himself to slouch back into his bedpost. He has no idea what to do, but he knows they can't kill Dad. Even after everything, they still owe his so much.

Right?

"You don't want to punish him for things he hasn't done yet, right?" Klaus asks, out of the blue. He stares at Allison and Luther until they nod. "Well, why don't we punish hin for the things he _has_ done, then?" His eyes roam the room, seeking support. Ben hesistantly nods at him.

"What... what so you mean?" Allison questions, her grow furrowed. The aggression in her stance relaxes until, instead of crossing her arms, she looks like she's hugging herself. She looks so young.

"He gave us numbers instead of names; left us with a robot nanny and a chimp with anxiety, instead of being an open, loving father. For fuck's sake, he's literally training us to be child soldiers! He locked Vanya up in that vault for, what? Days? A week? He used to do the same to me, except he put _me_  in the mausoleum!" Klaus snaps, looking more and more agitated the longer he speaks.

Only Ben doesn't look horrified by Klaus' confession.

Dad did that? Really? Even after all he's learned, Luther finds it hard to handle.

But Klaus just plows on, ignorant to his siblings' turmoil. "It's not like he's never hit any of us. God knows he's hit _me_ plenty. He's got the child endangerment case of the century! The way he runs this place, we basically live in the world's fanciest prison. I- I mean..." Klaus stammers, seems to loose his courage, before he takes a deep breath and continues at a significantly meeker pace, "we just have to tell the truth. We... we could get out of here."

Ben immediately starts nodding in assent, like this was the proposal he was really waiting for. "Just because he 'deserves to live' doesn't mean we should have to suffer."

Five blinks at Klaus as if suddenly seeing him in a new light. Then he glances away, mind shooting off to figure out the logistics of this new plan.

For quite possibly the first time in his lives, all of Luther's siblings look excited for the future.

"If we do that," Allison starts, breaking the mood as she pushes herself off the wall to pace, "how do we know that we'll be able to stay together? Or, what about some government agency? They could make us disappear. Or, God forbid, CPS doesn't do anything at all! Dad's a billionaire; he could pay them off! What then?"

Luther doesn't ever remember seeing Allison this frantic over _anything_. He steals another glance at Vanya.

All because of her. All _for_ her.

"It'd have to be as public as possible," Diego says, nodding to himself as he goes. "We have to make sure that everyone sees us ask for help so that we'll have too much attention on us to just be ignored or vanished. That rat bastard can't pay off everybody!"

Five laughs, sounding triumphant and manic all at once. Luther feels the control slowly leak out of the room again. _Here we go_. "We ask for help in an interview. Reginald hates attending those, so he won't be able to stop us before we can start! We just tell him that we wish to remind the public that we're the good guys. Say that we should bring Vanya along to make us seem more normal! Once we get there, we tell the interviewer to ask us questions about our home life to humanize us, then-!" Five stops, too enthusiastic to continue. Luther supposes planning the achievement of your life's one goal will do that to a person, time travelling assassin or not.

" - The we unleash the beast!" Klaus giggles, digging his elbow into Ben's side. Ben grins back at him, looking elated.

Luther isn't so sure. Because - well, surely... Surely this wasn't all necessary, right? Dad wasn't _really_ this horrible monster that they had to stage a public escape from. Maybe, instead, they could all just-

"Lou?" Allison implores. The room grows quiet when they realize Luther doesn't seem to share their excitement.

"I just - I've spent my whole life trying to be good enough for him. For Dad. Are we really judt going to betray him? Abandon him? Couldn't we just try to be better this time?" Luther beseeches his siblings, hateful of how the vulnerability makes his voice sound so weak and small.

Surprisingly, it's Five who finds it in himself to respond first.

"Luther, you _are_ Number One. You're his favorite. You could have returned Goddess of the Hunt and Moon and he still wouldn't ever be happy with you! That's just the way abusive shitholes _are_ ," Five sighs. Right now, Luther can see just how old Five really is. Just how tired.

But Luther doesn't want to believe him. Surely he could have done _something_ to finally gain Father's approval?

 _(Surely, he wasn't trapped and alone that whole time for_ nothing _!)_

"Lou. You can't make him happy. None of us could. But, together, we have the chance to save ourselves. We can keep Vanya protected." Allison gazes over at Vanya, expression equal in hope and sadness. "More importantly, we can keep ger happy and safe. But we _can't_ do that here."

Luther peers around his room. His entire family is staring at him, pleading and hopeful. They're more alive than anything in this house has ever dared to be.

Us or nothing, huh?

"Okay," Luther assents. "We're gonna do this. Okay." The relief that floods the room is almost strong enough to drink. He tries to pretend his siblings' jubliant faces don't fill him with joy, too. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow!" Klaus decides. His body is slipping down to lay on Luther's carpet, already looking totally at home. "Tonight is for sleeping, nerds!"

At the mention of rest, yawns seem to erupt from at least half the room. Luther's tired, too, but the feeling seems far away.

Even though he's sure they all know they'll get into trouble in the morning for it, no one moves to leave his room. Instead, they all settle in to sleep. Luther can't find it inside himself to object.

Diego is ultimately the one to break the quiet. It echoes, seemingly too loud to fit into the peaceful room. "Someone should keep watch. In case Vanya wakes up."

"She shouldn't wake up tonight. She might not even wake up tomorrow. She used a lot of energy nobody even knew she had, much less herself," Five assures, but he doesn't truly sound certain. He's already shifting to sit up; to try and stay awake all night, Luther figures.

That won't do.

"I'll stay up," Luther says, attempting to sound like the authority figure he has always tried to be. "I'd probably stay up all night, anyway. Besides, it's not like there's anywhere for me to lay down," He snorts, laughing low in his chest. _I have a lot to think about_ , he doesn't mention, but guesses the rest of his family hears anyway.

It's going to be a long night. _But it won't be silent or lonely_ , Luther muses as he glances up at the moon peeking through the window. _It's not just him and the empty vastness of space anymore_.

Luther's got _family_ , now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks! I hope to see you guys soon, for the next installment, which will either be about vanya and her waking up, or the gang having to deal with sir rat again, or tricking him into that interview (any suggestions/preferences?)
> 
> sorry for the lack of vanya. i know!!
> 
> if you wanna shout about umbrella academy with me, find me on tumblr at @lesbianklauus !!
> 
> (did i read this over once i was done typing it? barely)

**Author's Note:**

> luther has some stuff goin on right now.
> 
> fun fact: this whole chapter was only about two sentences in my plan. yay :))))
> 
> if you want to shout at me about the umbrella academy, you can find me on tumblr at @lesbianklauus !!!


End file.
